The culture and how it affects ministry to kids

Alphabet week

As the school year winds down and draws to a close, this week is Alphabet week in my early childhood classroom. The students are completely saturated in the letters of the alphabet.

They have been focusing on one letter per week for the entire school year, but during this last full week of school for the year, they are focusing on all 26 letters.

The students are working on alphabet puzzles. They are doing alphabet art projects. They are tracing letters of the alphabet. They are coloring block letters. They are painting block letters. They are learning the sign language alphabet to try to sign their names. They are matching alphabet letter cards.?

They are playing in alphabet soup in the sensory table. Fill the sensory table with water. Place plastic alphabet letters in the water. Cut short white strings or rope for noodles. Allow students to use plastic spoons to scoop the letters in the table and identify the letters they scoop.?

They are walking on the Yellow Brick Letter Road. Use a long sheet of yellow bulletin board paper. Write the letters of the alphabet in order starting with A on the end of the paper. Make squares around each letter. Some letters should be to the right of one another and some letters should be straight ahead and others should be a little behind one another. This will cause the students to look before they step from one letter to the next, making sure they are stepping on the correct letter in order. It is a good idea to have the students remove their shoes and walk on the yellow brick road in their sock feet to avoid ripping the paper with their shoes.?

They are decorating block letters with stickers, markers, and crayons. Allow the students to be creative in their decorations. Once all 26 letters of the alphabet have been decorated, arrange each letter card in a quilt shape and glue or tape together. Hang the quilt on the wall for display and further study.

Alphabet week is a great week for a concentrated study on the letters of the alphabet as the school year wraps up for the summer.